Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal - A Guide for Prescribers, Therapists, Patients and their Families

Nothing in the field of mental health will do more good and reduce
more harm than encouraging withdrawal from psychiatric drugs. The time
is past when the focus in mental health was on what drugs to take for
what disorders. Now we need to focus on how to stop taking psychiatric
drugs and to replace them with more person-centered, empathic
approaches. The goal is no longer drug maintenance and stagnation; the
goal is recovery and achieving well-being.

My new book, Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal: A Guide for Prescribers, Therapists, Patients and Families,
responds to a citizen rebellion that demands, “Help us get off these
drugs!” It also encourages a professional revolution among concerned
therapists who want to reject the idea of enforcing “patient
compliance.”

It’s time for therapists—psychologists, nurses, social workers,
family therapists, and counselors—to stop pushing their clients and
patients to take psychiatric drugs that cause brain damage, harm the
body, and shorten their patients’ lives. In Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal,
therapists will learn about psychiatric drugs to actively participate
with patients and families in the medication decision-making process.

The book provides a new roadmap for prescribers, therapists, patients
and their families that will enable patients to taper off their drugs
and achieve emotional and physical recovery and well-being. At the same
time, it provides an improved treatment approach for all patients
regardless of whether they are taking psychiatric drugs.

Prescribers of psychiatric drugs should welcome much greater
participation of therapists, patients, and their families in
decision-making about psychiatric drugs. This new emphasis on patient
partnership and well-being will greatly increase awareness of adverse
psychiatric drug effects and facilitate patients withdrawing before the
harm becomes irreparable. It will improve the prescriber’s overall
satisfaction and effectiveness as a service provider.

Some therapists have told me they are afraid of being sued if they
offer opinions or participate in psychiatric-drug decision making. In my
extensive forensic experience, this almost never happens, and I know of
no such successful suit against a therapist. Instead, the highest level
of professional ethics requires the therapist to confront the risks and
dangers associated with their patients’ psychiatric drugs.

There is now so much scientific evidence proving that psychiatric
drugs damage the brain and overall health and lifespan, that the major
concern should be “How to stop taking psychiatric drugs.” It can be
dangerous and even agonizing to stop, and people need to take charge of
the process and no longer let prescribers like psychiatrists, general
practitioners, and pediatricians dictate to them how long they or their
children need to stay on drugs.

Up to now, professionals—when agreeing to withdraw patients from
drugs—have withdrawn them at their own predetermined rate and often much
too abruptly. This book explains and illustrates a Person-Centered
Collaborative Partnership that focuses on the patient’s feelings and
needs throughout the withdrawal process.

Therapists are often the first to realize that their patients are
overly or unnecessarily medicated but they have been discouraged from
voicing their opinions or discussing them with their clients or
patients. They have also been discouraged from participating in
medication decision-making and have been urged or mandated to enforce
medication compliance. This book offers a new pathway for therapists to
participate in an active patient and family partnership, along with the
prescriber. It begins with a review of the dangers associated with
psychiatric drugs and then describes and illustrates the process of
person-centered withdrawal and mental health recovery, often with the
collaboration of the therapist and family.

Patients often come to me wishing to withdraw from psychiatric drugs
but are terrified because their previous prescribers, if agreeing to
drug withdrawal, have withdrawn them much too rapidly and without regard
for their suffering in the process. Nothing is more important than the
patient’s sense of control over the process and the timing of
withdrawal.

At a time when scientific research is demonstrating the harm from long-term drug exposure, the proposed new Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V)
will be pushing for increasingly widespread drug prescription. The
mental health field needs to reverse itself by vastly increasing
emphasis on psychiatric drug withdrawal and drug-free recovery.

This model for a patient-centered collaborative team approach not
only transforms drug withdrawal but mental health treatment in general
with its greater emphasis on the patient partnership and well-being. Its
approach transforms treatment for all mental health clients and
patients. The book is especially vital for the treatment of dependent
children and adults, individuals struggling from emotional crises and
serious mental turmoil, the elderly, and anyone with compromised
judgment and cognitive ability.

The Person-Centered Collaborative Partnership approach ushers in a
new era of patient- and family-centered treatment. It offers a whole new
level of drug-free recovery and enhanced well-being. The goal is no
longer a drug-induced holding pattern, but genuine physical and
psychological recovery and growth.